15 June 2001

J&K CM SUMMONED BACK FROM LONDON TO BE PART OF INDIAN TEAM AT SUMMIT TALKS

From Jal Khambata

NEW DELHI: An SOS (urgent call) has gone out to Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Dr Farooq Abdullah, at the instance of the Prime Minister, to curtail his holiday in Britain and return to India at the earliest to participate in the preparations for the Indo-Pak summit taking place next month.

Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee is understood to have directed the summit managers in the External Affairs Ministry to include Dr Abdullah in the team he would be heading for talks with Pakistan military ruler General Pervez Musharraf expected to be India on July 9.

"We are preparing for a full-fledged discussion on Jammu and Kashmir involving all aspects and as such Vajpayee's instructions are quite explicit that the presence and participation of Dr Farooq Abdullah in such a discussion is essential," one of the summit managers disclosed.

He pointed out that the PM's request to Dr Abdullah to return urgently from his holiday was rushed since "our inquiries showed that he would be otherwise back only after one and a half month."

A top source in the Prime Minister's Office also claimed that the Vajpayee-Musharraf talks would "greatly impact" the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections and hence Vajpayee wants that the Chief Minister should be totally involved in the talks "from A to Z."

The source said the Prime Minister was also optimistic that the talks would pave way for the political involvement of the multi-party All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) as well as other militant groups in the elections.

Once these groups have a voice in running the affairs of the state, the militancy that has badly ruined Jammu and Kashmir for the past 11 years would automatically die down, the source said while pointing out that the prime factor that weighed in Vajpayee deciding to end the 2-year long deadlock of any talks with Pakistan was to find ways to put an end to militancy in the state.

The Prime Minister's perception is that most of the militant groups in the state suffer some sort of alienation which can not disappear unless they start participating in the political activities of the state instead of continuously trying to achieve their goals by prompting the youths to take to arms, the source said.

He pointed out that an admitted ground reality is that these groups have their pockets of influence in Jammu and Kashmir and the political parties who have been participating in the democratic process of election do not have that much influence to dissuade the people from militancy despite the ruin they have suffered.

The Indo-Pak talks are aimed at persuading General Musharraf to stop promoting the cross-border terrorism as that was essential to prompt the militant groups in the state to look for the democratic means to achieve their ends, the source added. END